The message of "Hindle Wakes" is therefore of inestimable value, inasmuch as it dispels the fog of the silly sentimentalism and disgusting bombast that declares woman a thing apart from nature--one who neither does nor must crave the joys of life permissible to man. Hindle is a small weaving town, symbolically representing the wakefulness of every small community to the shortcomings of its neighbors. _Christopher Hawthorne_ and _Nathaniel Jeffcote_ had begun life together as lads in the cotton mill. But while _Christopher_ was always a timid and shrinking boy, _Nathaniel_ was aggressive and ambitious. When the play opens, _Christopher_, though an old man, is still a poor weaver; _Nathaniel_, on the contrary, has reached the top of financial and social success. He is the owner of the biggest mill; is wealthy, influential, and withal a man of power. For _Nathaniel Jeffcote_ always loved power and social approval. Speaking of the motor he bought for his only son _Alan_, he tells his wife: _Jeffcote._ Why did I buy a motor-car? Not because I wanted to go motoring. I hate it. I bought it so that people could see Alan driving about in it, and say, "There's Jeffcote's lad in his new car. It cost five hundred quid." However, _Nathaniel_ is a "square man," and when facing an emergency, not chary with justice and always quick to decide in its favor. The _Jeffcotes_ center all their hopes on _Alan_, their only child, who is to inherit their fortune and business. _Alan_ is engaged to _Beatrice_, the lovely, sweet daughter of _Sir Timothy Farrar_, and all is joyous at the Jeffcotes'. Down in the valley of Hindle live the _Hawthornes_, humble and content, as behooves God-fearing workers. They too have ambitions in behalf of their daughter _Fanny_, strong, willful and self-reliant,--qualities molded in the hard grind of _Jeffcote's_ mill, where she had begun work as a tot. During the "bank holiday" _Fanny_ with her chum _Mary_ goes to a neighboring town for an outing. There they meet two young men, _Alan Jeffcote_ and his friend. _Fanny_ departs with _Alan_, and they spend a glorious time together. On the way home _Mary_ is drowned. As a result of the accident the _Hawthornes_ learn that their daughter had not spent her vacation with _Mary_. When _Fanny_ returns, they question her, and though she at first refuses to give an account of herself, they soon discover that the girl had passed the time with a man,--young _Alan Jeffcote_. Her parents are naturally horrified, and decide to force the _Jeffcotes_ to have _Alan_ marry _Fanny_.